Virginia Senate Delays Polystyrene Ban

UPDATE: The House rejected the delay clause from the Senate and HB 533 will go to conference committtee. This has been a long, circuitous process, but this does give us one last shot to pass the bill with no delay.

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Friday afternoon, the Senate voted to amend HB 533 — the bill that would ban polystyrene cups and takeout containers — by including in it a re-enactment clause. This means the bill has to be voted on again next year before any parts of the bill can be put into place.  

Simply put, it’s a delay mechanism.

After having cleared the House, the Senate Committee and two of the first three votes on the Senate floor, why was this amendment even proposed?

Sen. Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax City) [reachable at (804) 698-7534] and Sen Dave Marsden (D-Western Fairfax) [reachable at (804) 698-7537] argued on the Senate floor that the impacts of this would be too much for small businesses to bear. There are industries, they claimed, that are interested in coming to Virginia to set up “advanced recycling” centers. These industries would help us recycle expanded polystyrene.

That’s a nice thought, but it doesn’t really hold up upon closer examination.

First of all, we know attempts to recycle polystyrene products don’t work. A recent study conducted by New York City found that recycling polystyrene products was not economically feasible, citing 30 years of failed foam recycling programs.

Second, successful recycling programs rely on collection. What makes us think that all the polystyrene containers littering Virginia’s streams that weren’t thrown into garbage cans will suddenly be thrown into recycling cans?

As Sen Richard Stuart (R – Prince George) said on the Senate floor, “If you drive down any country road in rural Virginia, the ditches are full of styrofoam cups and styrofoam food containers. If you walk down any shoreline in the state of Virginia, the shorelines are piled up with this stuff.”

This pollution isn’t escaping trash cans or would-be-recycling containers. It is being littered.

Reedy Creek in south Richmond, filled with polystyrene takeout containers (and other items).

With regards to small businesses, there seems to be no aversion to creating more up-front costs. Sen Petersen himself voted for a 5 cent fee to be levied on each single-use plastic bag. In fact, during committee hearing, Sen Petersen asked the patron of HB 533 if she’d be amenable to adding a 5 cent fee on polystyrene containers. The cost of biodegradable alternatives is higher than polystyrene. That’s why HB 533 includes a generous phase-out timeline — 2023 for big businesses and 2025 for small businesses. This gives businesses time to plan and find cost-effective biodegradable alternatives. Cost effective biodegradable options like that already exist. 

It’s also worth noting there is nothing stopping businesses from passing along these increased costs to consumers — just like they would with the fee that Sen Petersen and others support. Except, with the ban in place, we’d be removing an incredibly dangerous material from the waste cycle at the source instead of paying to clean it up after the fact. 

The truth is… we can’t wait any longer. We need to stop using dangerous single-use plastics like polystyrene. Delaying good policy like this doesn’t do anyone any favors.